Ensemble expands with new family-run café, Sibling.

After a long stint in Melbourne, Caitlin (of the enviably successful Duff family tree) and husband Nathaniel Morse are back in Adelaide and set to open café, Sibling, in the space adjoining Ensemble on Gilles Street at the end of the month.

“The idea took shape as we were sitting around Mum’s table on Christmas morning,” says Caitlin.

“Nathaniel and I had just decided to move home after seven years in Melbourne playing in bands and working as baristas (to have a baby, now due in three weeks!) and my sister Anny mentioned that the space next door to her store Ensemble was available for lease.”

“We have always wanted to open our own café / studio and the timing couldn’t be more perfect,” she says.

But the space, which is a sister business to Ensemble, will be more than just a cafe – it will also act as a shared creative space for Good Studios, Sia Duff Photography, and, in the months to come, a new Duff-led business venture in its infancy, recording studio, Elysian Fields, will occupy the rear warehouse (more on that at a later date).

Chef and youngest Duff sister, Rady, will be heading up the kitchen with her winter menu, which will be comfort food-heavy.

And, like Ensemble, the café will be slow and locally-minded. “We’ll be using local roaster Monday’s coffee, our bread and pastries are coming from Dough/Market St, and we’ll be serving bagels from The Beigelry,” says Caitlin.

“Everything we serve will be made fresh using seasonal ingredients sourced each morning from the markets. We’ll also have fresh juices, smoothies and cold brew tea and coffee to round out the refreshments.”

Though designer Reuben French-Kennedy and carpenter Dusty Weatherald were enlisted to build the bar (from a Monterey Cypress tree felled a decade ago in McClaren Vale), the interiors are a family effort.

“The interiors have been a labour of love by the whole family; reviving neglected furniture from gumtree, eBay and family heirlooms. Anny has been collecting pottery on her recent travels through Japan and Thailand… Mum’s sewing our aprons out of hemp linen off-cuts,” Caitlin says.

“Sibling really is a family business. The best part about this whole process has been using our various skills and knowledge to make something we’re all really proud of and an atmosphere that feels like home.”

That sense of warmth and homeliness is something the Duff family hopes customers feel too, says Caitlin.

“We hope that anyone who comes to Sibling will feel like part of the family.”